NP Seymour demo event generates ‘considerable interest’

NP Seymour, the fruit and viticulture machinery specialist, has been serving fruit and vine growers since 1974. The company hosted its annual two-day event recently, which was held on the family-run fruit farm and vineyards of JL Baxter and Sons in Hunton, Kent.

The event is split, with day one dedicated to machinery for the fruit growing sector, and the second day given over to demonstrating equipment for the viticulture market. Fruit & Vine attended on day two and spent a day among the established vines in the rolling Kent landscape.

The team from NP Seymour were bolstered by representatives from the various companies whose equipment was on display.

Amongst these were specialists from Fendt, suppliers of the five different tractor models used on the day, Braun Maschinenbau, the OCLL company, Perfect Van Wamel, Airjet, ERO GmbH and BMV-Italy. As well as the machinery, visitors had an opportunity to see a range of weather and plant health equipment from Metos UK.

“We were so pleased to see growers travel from across England and Wales to view the machinery we offer,” explained NP Seymour sales and marketing director, Claire Seymour.

“There is always considerable interest in the Fendt specialist tractors, of which we’ve been a dealer now for 40 years. In similar fashion to last year’s event most visitors mainly wanted to see and compare the mechanical weed control solutions we have from Braun and the various canopy management tools on offer.

“As labour for hand stripping is still expensive to source, more people are investing in defoliators and trimmers. We were delighted to be supported by representatives from our suppliers who gave further insight into the current machines on the market and new technology being developed.” 

Stem cleaning, mowing and weeding

A 104hp Fendt 210V was equipped with a Braun double over-row stem cleaner on the front and an Alpha 2000 mower on the rear, featuring dual finger weeders.

Explaining how the stem cleaner tackles the quadruple issues of labour costs, fuel expense, weather and lack of time by cleaning stems on both sides, two rows at a time, Braun representative Cristina Castagnotto went on to say that further savings in time and fuel costs can be made by adding a mower, to keep the alleyways trimmed, and in turn this can be combined with additional accessories such as the finger weeder, as fitted on the day, that removes weeds right up to the plant stem while at the same time levelling the under-vine soil.

Other tools, such as rotary tillers, can also be simply added by undoing just 2 or 3 bolts and the working width of these tools is easily adjusted. The Alpha 2000 is available in various models with working widths from 1.1–2.50m and each model having adjustment capability of between 300mm and 550mm.

The finger weeders are available in two different sizes,  540mm and 700mm – and in two different levels of material hardness.

Relieving ground compaction

Peter Knight from Bury Turfcare designed and built the Airjet ground aerator originally to relieve waterlogged ground on sports facilities such as football pitches and golf courses. It consists of a 25mm diameter metal tine, with four holes in the sides. The tine is pushed into the ground, up to half a meter, using hydraulics and air from a compressor is injected into the ground.

The air can be set to inject numerous times and for varying periods, and will inject on both the in and the out stroke of the tine to inject lots of air to relieve compaction. Originally a single tine machine, the latest version, as demonstrated at the event, has a twin tine set-up allowing it to inject air into the soil near the vine roots on both sides of the alleyway at the same time.

The system has quite a heavy air demand, so works best with a towed compressor that can deliver the high volumes required. The spacing of the injections, and the quantity of air injected, all depends on how bad the compaction is, but typically in a vineyard type environment it would inject around every one to two meters. On the day, the Airjet was being pulled by a Fendt 207F producing 79hp.

ERO Elite trimmer

Available in ‘L’ or ‘over the row’ versions, all with single or double sided variants, the ERO Elite trimmer uses 350mm stainless steel blades with either four, five or six blades on the vertical cutting beam, and either three or four blades on the horizontal cutting bar depending upon the model. Cutting length ranges from 1,000mm up to 1,950mm. The range promises easy set up and comes with a ‘comfort’ joystick for smooth, light-touch action. Each trimmer comes with a double acting lift mast on which other ERO products can be mounted. The model demonstrated was an ‘L’ double sided trimmer attached to a Fendt 210V tractor.

ERO VITIpulse Combi defoliator

The VITIpulse Combi, attached to a 114hp Fendt 211V, uses a dual system to remove leaves from the lower part of the vine, exposing the developing grapes for better spray access and reducing the risk of mould and disease. It uses the two universally accepted methods of defoliating vines – the sucking and plucking method and the air blast concept – combined into a single unit.

Available in a double version to work both sides at once, or a single side version for smaller vineyards or those in hot climates where only the shady side of the vine is worked at any one time, the dual system delivers deeper penetration into the canopy than hand plucking delivers, at a speed that is faster than air blasting alone.

Air blasting alone can also cause damage to the grapes with leaf fragments cutting into the fruit. By sucking and plucking first, damage is much reduced and the window during which air blasting can be used is much greater. It is also claimed that this system is less damaging to the fruit than even hand plucking. The results seen on the day were impressive, with excellent foliage removal and little to no damage to the grapes.

BMV E600 vine trimmer

This single sided trimmer has rotating knives, that are claimed to require less maintenance than reciprocating saws, provide less vibration and are less prone to jamming, with either three or four on the vertical cutting bar, one or two on the top horizontal bar and an optional bottom knife.

The horizontal bar can be operated vertically to increase the overall length of the vertical bar, if required. Three electrically operated hydraulic rams offer various adjustment options in sidewards, upwards and tilting orientations. The BMV E600 is lightweight, but strongly built and only requires a tractor with between 40 and 60hp to operate. On the day it was mounted on a Fendt 207F with 79HP.

Directional air blast sprayer

NP Seymour offers a range of spraying machines with the OCLL APUS 5 being the entry level model. This simple tractor-mounted directional air blast sprayer offers an economical solution for both horizontal and vertical spraying.

Designed specifically for compact spaces, tight headlands or sloping ground, the APUS 5 is available with a plastic tank of 300, 400, 500 or 600-litre capacity and two different pump sizes depending on tank capacity. The sprayer comes with a two-speed and neutral transmission and a bypass valve to wash
the system without diluting the mixture.

Frost and weather monitoring

David Whatoff from Metos UK was present on the day demonstrating a couple of products from the weather and frost monitoring range, as well as a new hand-held device for monitoring vine health.

The 3.3 weather station provides rain, temperature, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and wind direction which, when used in combination with the Metos software and built-in modem, can provide disease monitoring and frost alert functions. For simple, more localised weather monitoring, there was the nMetos Frost – a small standalone unit that crucially uses a wet and dry bulb sensor for more accurate frost detection.

The Dualex is a device for monitoring crop health by simply clipping the unit across the vine leaf. Designed primarily for the viticulture market the Dualex measures nitrogen balance index, chlorophyll, flavonoids and anthocyanins which, among other things, tells the story of the uptake of nutrients over time. A built in GPS will record and output data at the end of the day to avoid making notes and speed up the process of taking measurements.

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